


The Space Between

by KeyDog (BannedBloodOranges)



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Flash Fiction - 15 Minute Challenge, Fluff, Humour, If I don't have song lyrics somewhere assume I have died, Kirhura, M/M, Moving In Together, Romance, Tribble Christmas Tree, spones - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-07 21:28:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20460740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BannedBloodOranges/pseuds/KeyDog
Summary: Moving into other quarters on a starship is not the same as changing houses, taking shuttlecrafts with entire lives stuffed in the storage, nothing quite so far-reaching or romantic. But it's something, and it's theirs.





	The Space Between

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Между](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22490395) by [Entrecote_of_Schrodinger](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Entrecote_of_Schrodinger/pseuds/Entrecote_of_Schrodinger), [WTF Star Trek Reboot 2020 (Star_Trek_20XX)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Trek_20XX/pseuds/WTF%20Star%20Trek%20Reboot%202020)

> Non-profit fun only.

_ The space between what's wrong and right _

_Is where you'll find me hiding, waiting for you _

_The space between your heart and mine _

_Is the space we'll fill with time_

**_The Space Between,_** Dave Matthews Band

* * *

They try to be as discreet as possible. Scotty, in the know, helps transport boxes of Uhura's books, clothes, belongings during the long evening shifts where the crew are working bare-bones on the bridge and the remainder are in the rec room, or the cafeteria, or sleeping.

It's not that Jim cares, really. But he has a reputation, and one he lived up to during the sprawling summer terms of the academy, bedwarmer and heartbreaker (the latter tended to be him. There was a reason he never loved easy.)

They shifted past creeping into each other's quarters at night, slipping into turbolifts together (and Nyota is surprisingly okay with unprofessional conduct if it is quick and hidden and doesn't impeach on security or safety.) Nyota is a woman who values conviction and commitment and Jim, so used to the wonky terrains of relationships, to being cast adrift in both patience and easy sex (_ you don't want a relationship, don't pretend) _finds in her an anchor that pours cement on his feet in terms of social security and he never knew he wanted it so much, to have something like that, to belong to him and to belong to her in kind.

It all kicked off when McCoy woke to find Spock arranging his belongings in his quarters, shifting supplies and living space as it was second nature "in accordance with their developing relationship and personal wants and needs" and that "it was logical to do so, seeing as they have now shifted to a long term arrangement" and McCoy had sworn and cursed that he had just got married _ again _and he didn't even know it (and let Spock do it anyway, with minimal complaining.)

The revelation of this glossed Nyota's eyes with a strange, expectant rigour, and she stared at Jim on the bridge, in the rec room, in the long lines of their bed with her hair stuck to his lips and the next day he mentioned, offhand, that maybe they should "take the next step." He meant to make it a quick joke, an allusion to her demand for sex, for easier access to each other's bodies and showers and changeable linens before she'd looked at him with a smile so strong it stung the back of his throat.

Moving into other quarters on a starship is not the same as changing houses, taking shuttlecrafts with entire lives stuffed in the storage, nothing quite so far-reaching or romantic. But it's something, and it's theirs.

He doesn't leave himself in his room until she lives there, giving him something _to_ leave, to share and wait for at the end of a shift. Her shampoos and lotions crowd his shelves next to his shaving foam and aftershave, happy to stand together (and he keeps using her shampoo by accident, their hair a twin scent of apricot and pine.) She covers the white sheets with colourful blankets as he drills up a shelf so she can house her antique books of Romulan dialects in parchment and copperplate. She buys him an entire set of the collective works of Charles Dickens and reads it to him in Klingon to help him learn (it's surprisingly beautiful that way, and sad.)

Come Christmas, he sets up an artificial tree in the corner and hangs it with a handful of novelty tribble decorations in gaudy sparkly fluff he got from a space station tourist trap. He watches her laughter as she sees it, and then she chokes as he steps out of the bathroom wearing nothing but fake Xmas Tribble. (It made sense when he bought it. In the New Year he leaves the underwear in McCoy's drawer and records his best friend swearing himself blue as Spock asks "if it was an attempt to provoke titillation" and "if Leonard wishes to indulge, he would not be dismissive of such a request.")

In the space between the bridge and bedroom, they make time for each other. The warmth of her blooms not just behind his command chair, but in the creases of the bedsheets, the scent of her head on the pillow, the condensation clung to the walls of the shower, her jewellery holder hung with the shimmering pods of her earrings, the purple toothbrush stood proud by his own. She is everywhere, she is in him, and he loves her until everything aches with it. In a world of starships and discovery, who knew it would be the small things that took him apart, made him see an old world made new (the old being his quarters, being himself, alone, and the new being Nyota.)

There was also, that one time, hungover, she used his shaving foam in place of cream, and had the scent of "fresh mountain breeze" on her hands for days afterwards, and if that isn't proof of love, James T. Kirk doesn't know what is.

(In the spaces they call their own, he will eventually ask another question, with a ring hidden hot in the palm of his hand.)


End file.
